Cobham's theorem for the Gaussian integers
Number Theory
2025-12-05 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Commutative Algebra
Abstract
Assuming the four exponentials conjecture, Hansel and Safer showed that if a subset of the Gaussian integers is both - and -recognizable, then it is syndetic, and they conjectured that must be eventually periodic. Without assuming the four exponentials conjecture, we show that if and are multiplicatively independent Gaussian integers, and at least one of , is not an -th root of an integer, then any - and -automatic configuration is eventually periodic; in particular we prove Hansel and Safer's conjecture. Otherwise, there exist non-eventually periodic configurations which are -automatic for any root of an integer . Our work generalises the Cobham-Semenov theorem to Gaussian numerations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.01440,
title = {Cobham's theorem for the Gaussian integers},
author = {Álvaro Bustos-Gajardo and Robbert Fokkink and Reem Yassawi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.01440},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
15 pages, 2 figures